I Was Sick And You Visited Me

There was a story over at NPR today about President Obama ordering the department of Health and Human Services to create rules that would force hospitals that receive Medicare funds to allow same sex partners of sick patients the right to visit their loved ones in the hospital. The rules would also allow a sick person to designate a friend or distant relative to be a surrogate decision maker for the sick person, just like the spouse of a heterosexual patient.

Of course, there was a not unexpected ruckus over this ruling from the Family Research Council.

J.P. Duffy, vice president for communications at the Family Research Council, said Obama is pandering to a radical special interest group.

“There are many other ways to deal with this issue, whether through a health care proxy or power of attorney, through private contractual arrangements. We have no problem with those situations,” Duffy said, “but the fact here is that this is undermining the definition of marriage.”

Now the Family Research Council is affiliated with Focus On The Family an admittedly Christian organization.

The issue I have with their whole argument is how exactly does allowing a person to be able to chose who can visit them in the hospital “undermine” marriage? While I understand that this “Christian” organization disagrees with homosexuality, what purpose is served by arguing against this?

Do you really think that a sick gay or lesbian person is going to sit alone in their hospital bed and say “Gosh, I sure am glad those Christians kept my loved one away from me at this time I am sick. That really helps me to see Jesus.”?

In spite of the FRC’s disagreement with a gay or lesbian’s lifestyle, Jesus died for them too. Maybe if you were willing to show the compassion that Jesus modeled for us all, people might be more receptive to the Gospel message, one that says:

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ – Matthew 25:40 ESV